


Hamster Pairing

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Hamster of Old Age, Hamsters, Referenced Career-Ending Injury, pet store au, referenced pet death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 23:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19161334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: After losing his hamster of three years, Phichit goes shopping for replacements.  Despite initial misgivings, he finds the pet store owner to be someone who gets hamsters as much as he does.





	Hamster Pairing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/gifts).



> Written for 18OI AU Week Day 6: Shop AU
> 
> Gifted to LadyShadowphyre for giving me the awesome idea!

Phichit was not going to be dramatic. He wasn’t. This wasn’t even his first loss of a hamster. Sure, Brainiac had been special, but he was also three years old. The morning Phichit woke up to give him his green bean and found him dead had not been unexpected. He’d taken the rest of the week to thoroughly clean the cage, putting the food dish on a shelf near several others, in front of a picture. Yuuri called it the Hamster Memorial Wall. Everything else got very thoroughly cleaned to get rid of as much lingering scent as possible, and then reassembled. It was almost ready for a new occupant.

That’s what the trip to the pet store today was for. He was looking for the cage’s new occupant. He’d come down here earlier in the week for a scouting run of the shop and to get a new food bowl, and the shop seemed decent enough. The person he’d talked to hadn’t been an expert by any means, but she did know the difference between a Syrian hamster and a dwarf hamster and she knew better than to let Phichit buy a wire exercise wheel.

He didn’t see Sara here today, though. That was a bit of a disappointment. The only worker Phichit saw didn’t exactly inspire confidence, either. He looked like he should be wrangling dogs or horses or something big. Hard to imagine him with something small like a hamster.

Phichit went to look at the hamsters. Something looked off as he looked at the Syrian hamsters like Brainiac. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it was there.

“If you’re set on a Syrian, you should come back in a couple days.” Phichit jumped the voice behind him startled him. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to spook you.”

“It’s okay. What’s wrong with them?”

“Probably nothing, but we had to take one out with an ear infection, and we’ve been watching the others carefully to make sure he was the only one. They’re a little stressed from the extra examination, so we’re not selling them for another couple days just to be sure.” He gestured to the other row of hamster cages. “If you want a hamster today, the dwarfs are far enough away and handled separately enough that we don’t think there’s any reason to think it might have spread to them.”

“I’ve heard you have to keep dwarfs as pairs. Is that true?” Phichit knew the answer, of course. His first hamsters had been a pair of dwarf hamsters that he’d eventually had to separate because they fought so much. Both were much happier having separate cages in separate rooms.

“It’s true that you can keep them as pairs, unlike the Syrians. If you’re going to do that, you’re best off getting a pair from the same litter, since they’re used to each other already. I actually have three – sisters from the same litter. Big cage and separate food dishes, water bottles, exercise wheels… theoretically they even have their own toys, but those usually end up getting played with by whoever wants them. It does make for a bit more work for you, though, because you have to check them over frequently to make sure you don’t have problems coming up. On the other hand, if you just want one hamster, they’re fine alone. You don’t have to have them in pairs. Just means that you’re the only living thing they interact with, so you need to make sure your hamster has enough stimulation to keep itself entertained.”

Phichit kept getting more and more impressed the longer he talked. This guy knew hamsters. “So what do you recommend I do?”

“If you really want a Syrian, come back in a couple days. If you’d like, you can leave your phone number and someone will call or text when we’ve cleared them. If you don’t mind a dwarf, see if there are any that you click with. Somehow, you don’t strike me as the kind of guy who any hamster will be just as good.”

“Not at all.” Phichit had planned on getting another Syrian, but it couldn’t hurt to look at the dwarfs. Either he left here with a new hamster – or two – or he at least got to leave here having seen some hamsters and talked to a cute older guy. “Somehow, you don’t seem like a hamster guy…”

“I get that a lot.” The guy had a brilliant smile. “Before I owned a pet shop, I was a professional athlete. No one ever guesses the sport right unless they happen to be a fan, in which case they usually recognize me.”

“Hmm… soccer seems too obvious, with the accent that would probably be the most common guess.” The clerk nodded, smile not dimming a bit. “You’re tall, but not really tall enough for basketball… hockey? You look like you’d have been good at it, but you don’t have the scars or any teeth missing.”

“Closer than most people get. At least you’ve got me on the ice. I was a figure skater.” Phichit’s shock must have shown, because the clerk grinned at him. “Seriously. YouTube. 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, bronze medal.”

Phichit went to YouTube. It being over twenty years earlier, the video quality wasn’t as good as Phichit was used to, but there was no denying that the man on the ice was a younger version of the man standing in front of him. And now he had a name. Celestino Cialdini. “Wow. Your triple axel sucked.”

“Yes, it did. You know skating.”

“Yeah, I skated when I was a kid, but do you know how hard it is to find a coach for a boy in Thailand? Mom and Dad didn’t want to send me overseas for training… and then a year after I quit, they sent me to boarding school in the US for an education in English. I don’t understand parents.” Phichit peered into a cage of hamsters, looking for any that seemed special. “At least you could do a triple axel, I guess. I had trouble with the bigger jumps and my coaches wouldn’t even let me start trying.”

“It’s a much bigger deal now, of course. Back then, quads were what you did when you couldn’t win based on your artistry, and now you can’t win without one. Call me old, but I think the sport’s going a little too far in pushing jumping over everything else.”

“Heh, you should hear my roommate when he gets going about it. He used to skate, too. Big fan of Viktor Nikiforov, and, well…” Phichit moved on to the next hamster cage. Everyone knew Viktor’s story. Phenom out of Russia, on his way to becoming a living legend, and then he blew out a knee after trying a program with four quads and being too tired to land the fourth one. “He quit skating after that. Went back to dance.”

“I can’t say I blame him. Does he still watch?”

“Sometimes. He still has friends skating, like Christophe Giacometti and Michele Crispino, but sometimes it’s just too painful to watch and wonder. I got over that years ago and watch as much as I can, but for Yuuri, it’s still kind of fresh.” Phichit was about to move on to the next cage, but then a yellow-furred hamster caught his eye as it started running on the wheel. “I take it you still watch?”

“Most of the time. All my old skating friends are retired, of course, but some of them are coaching, some of the coaches are still working – like Yakov Feltsman.”

“You ever think about coaching?” Phichit had thought about it a couple times. It’s why he stayed in contact with his old coach, why he still practiced almost every day. He wasn’t going to be the first Thai skater to break out and put the country on the skating map, but he might be able to coach that kid.

“Tried it for a couple years, actually. I didn’t like it much, so I got out and started running this place. The animals are a lot less sarcastic than your average skater.” Phichit chuckled – that, he could understand thoroughly. “You like the little yellow guy?”

“Yeah, he’s – she’s? – cute.” Phichit looked over the others in the cage, to see if there was one that looked like it might be good as a cagemate. “The tan one with the white belly, too, adorable.”

“Those two get along pretty well, although it’s hard to say how they’ll do on their own. Want to hold them?” Phichit nodded, so Celestino opened the top of the cage and picked up the tan one. “One at a time, of course.”

“Of course.” Phichit stroked the hamster, checking it for any obvious signs of distress or injury. It seemed fine, and Phichit checked the sex. If he was just getting one, he didn’t care, but with two, he wanted to make sure it stayed two. “How old are they?”

“Four weeks. Old enough to leave their mothers, still young enough that you could theoretically resocialize them, and definitely young enough that I’m not selling you a pregnant hamster even if I did make a mistake sexing them.”

Perfect. Phichit handed Celestino the one he’d been handling and waited for Celestino to give him the other one. This one, too, was in good condition and also appeared to be female. “Okay, I’m happy. I need to get some additions for my cage, if I’m gonna put two hamsters in, but as long as you have everything I need, I’m ready to take them.”

“Of course. I’ll get the paperwork going while you pick out your new stuff, get carriers – you have a way to get them home?”

“Yeah, I borrowed my roommate’s car since I planned on coming home with a hamster. Thanks.” Phichit looked through the supplies, making sure to get an extra of everything the hamsters needed – he had emergency backups, but he was here, no sense in not continuing to have emergency backups. Celestino had the paperwork done so that all Phichit had to do was sign and pay, and the hamsters in a small plastic container with two sections.

Celestino handed Phichit the receipt, with a phone number scribbled at the bottom. “I know you know hamsters, but if you have questions, you can call me directly instead of the store. Or if your roommate doesn’t want to watch Worlds and you want someone to watch with. Enjoy your new pets!”


End file.
